James Bond came late to the Bait writers' room, but he arrived as the perfect symbol. The show is really about self-love and how people chase validation in all the wrong places — and what better emblem of decisive, desirable, alpha-male aspiration than 007?
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At 3:54 · chapter starts 2:53
Mendoza sets up Bait as a show about an actor of colour trying to break out of stereotype, with Bond as the vehicle. Ahmed immediately complicates the premise: James Bond came late in the writing process, he says, and the show is fundamentally about self-love and how all of us perform a public version of ourselves — on social media, on stage, anywhere we're being watched. He gestures at his own borrowed clothes and jokes that he's reading from an autocue, embodying the very gap the show explores. Then comes the pivot that reframes everything: Ahmed invokes Jordan Peele's observation that being Black in America feels like a horror movie. For Ahmed, being brown in the West feels like being stuck in a spy thriller you never signed up for — surveilled, suspected, caught between allegiances. Bond, then, does double duty: symbol of aspiration and nod to a genre Ahmed desperately wanted to inhabit. [1] — Riz Ahmed "Being brown in the West feels like you're stuck in a spy thriller that you did not ask to be in." 04:42
Bait is a six-episode Amazon Prime series in which Ahmed plays Shah Latif, an actor who auditions to be the next James Bond, exploring themes of self-love, identity, and authenticity.
Being brown in the West means living with surveillance, torn allegiances, and mistrust — the exact texture of a spy thriller. That feeling is the emotional engine behind Bait, and why James Bond served as the perfect genre vehicle to explore it.
Riz Ahmed says being brown in the West feels like being stuck in a spy thriller you didn't ask for — surveillance, torn allegiances, mistrust — which became the emotional core of Bait.
Steven Pressfield's insight: don't wait for the commitment to feel real before acting like a professional. Set up the studio. Make the schedule. Show up. Commitment doesn't precede action — it follows it. You act like a pro first, and your brain catches up with justifications after. The action is the commitment.
Robby Hoffman isn't fearless — she's terrified all the time. The difference is she does it anyway, because not doing it feels worse than the fear itself.
John Mulaney texted Robby Hoffman out of nowhere saying he'd been a fan for a while and wanted to make a Netflix special with her. Robby called it 'shocking, horrifying, anxiety-inducing, surreal and thrilling' — and said yes.
Mulaney is buttoned-up, suit-wearing, classy. Robby is gritty, raw, and undefined. Together they made the collab nobody expected. Batman and Robin. Eminem and Dido.
Music had Pope Gregory forcing notation. Comedy has had 'magical thinking' — he's just got funny bones. But jokes work through discoverable, teachable mechanics. Writing down the rules doesn't kill the magic; it gives more people access to it.
Howard Ashman had one insight nobody else had: animated Disney films should be Broadway musicals. The third song of every great musical is the character sitting alone explaining what they want. That's 'Part of Your World.' That structure — combined with Alan Menken's compositions — generated Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, and turned Disney Animation into the most profitable creative engine in entertainment history.
The Lion King musical has been running for 30 years across Broadway, London's West End, and global touring companies. It has grossed over $11 billion in total revenue — more than Avatar, more than Avengers: Endgame, more than any album, more than any video game. It generates an average of $350 million in revenue every single year. Disney owns it outright.
The anonymous French artist Invader has hidden 1,500 pixelated mosaic artworks across Paris alone, with thousands more scattered across 80+ cities — affixed to the Eiffel Tower, the Hollywood sign, and even sent to the International Space Station. He might be even busier than Banksy.
The Flash Invaders app turns city streets into a treasure hunt, letting players scan Invader's hidden mosaics for points. Players have collectively logged over 47 million flashes. Unlike most mobile games that glue you to a screen, this one forces you to look up and engage with your surroundings.
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